March for
elusive peaceThat even a peace march should take place full two months
after the outbreak of horrendous violence in Gujarat is a telling
commentary on the sorry state of affairs. The long delay robbed Sunday’s
exercise of much of its efficacy, making it a case of too little, too
late.

Inhuman traffickingMedia reports about the number and identity of the illegal immigrants who drowned as their boat capsized near the holiday resort of Naxos off the Greek shore on April 16 contradict the claims of the Ministry of External Affairs. Media reports are based on the statements of relatives of some of the immigrants and carry the names of the supposed victims along with details of their villages, while the MEA version is based on the information provided by the Indian missions in Greece and Turkey according to which none of the victims belonged to India..

Agenda for childrenA nation that does not invest in its children is doomed to have an uncertain future. There is global consensus on this point. Yet, few countries have really given the growth of what can be called the "child sector" the attention it deserves. In developed societies the neglect of this sector results in the kind of tragedy that visited a school in Erfurt in Germany last week.

Party interests vs nation’s reputationGujarat’s lengthening shadow over ParliamentS. Nihal SinghIf the Bharatiya Janata Party gives the impression of being on the defensive even as it seeks to cloak its stance in bravado, it has reasons for concern. The political space it occupies is diminishing, as recent elections prove. Besides, its indefensible approach to the Gujarat carnage can be justified only in terms of safeguarding its
narrow political interests at the expense of the country.

Foreign missions: undiplomatic leaks
Poonam I. KaushishGenocide, pogrom, Nazism and apartheid. Words that spell discrimination and cold-blooded massacre of innocents have sprung out of history books and today haunt India as never before. Sweeping accusations and sensational headlines have become the order of the day, hurting India no end.

Congress: new hopes, hard optionsP. RamanUntil a year back, it was rather fashionable to dismiss the Congress as a dinosaur party. We were all delighted to watch the party’s Lok Sabha tally nosediving to 112. The more wishful among us had even predicted disintegration of the Congress, turning it, at best, into a regional party. The Congress did face a leadership crisis. But more than that its real problem then has been an identity crisis.

Silk road: behind the veil
Anwar IqbalThe Islamic culture of segregation of sexes was based on early marriages that prevented sexual frustration but economic pressure and evolving social attitudes are rapidly changing that tradition.

Headache linked to common germ: studyPreliminary research suggests that some headaches may be linked to infection with a common bug and that daily doses of friendly bacteria could ward them off.
A study presented at an infectious diseases meeting in Milan found that about 18 per cent of chronic migraine sufferers were infected with the stomach bug helicobacter pylori and that antibiotics appeared to clear the headaches.

That even a peace march should take place full two months
after the outbreak of horrendous violence in Gujarat is a telling
commentary on the sorry state of affairs. The long delay robbed Sunday’s
exercise of much of its efficacy, making it a case of too little, too
late. Such gestures are mainly symbolic, but that does not mean they should be postponed till they appear to be no more than an afterthought. The April 28 response to the February 27 Godhra carnage and the subsequent riots leaves one with an unmistakable impression that it had been staged for political reasons, mainly as a response to universal condemnation. However, even the lighting of a tiny candle is welcome during such dark hours. Even if it was only a cosmetic measure, the “people’s peace march” saw Chief Minister Narendra Modi joining it and committing to do what he ought to have done a long time back. His presence along with those of some VHP leaders may be cited as a proof of their sincerity by their supporters, although it has also annoyed many others. There are reports that a section of the Muslim community boycotted the peace march because the “killers” in the Gujarat communal carnage were taking part in it. The first major peace effort should have attracted lakhs of participants instead of barely a thousand that actually joined it. There were more security personnel than participants and most of the hapless victims merely watched from the sidelines in sullen silence as the rally wended through roads which had earlier witnessed inhuman violence.

What is significant is that vendetta killings took place in Gujarat on the very day of the march and seven persons lost their lives. That shows how tense and volatile the situation there continues to be. The real peace will dawn only when concrete steps are taken to quell the unending bloodshed. In their speeches, Defence Minister George Fernandes and Mr Modi urged the sufferers to forgive and forget. That indeed is necessary for the wounds of mindless violence killings to heal. But at the same time, the government has to spell out what it intends to do to remedy the situation and also to redeem its prestige. Mr Modi was particularly harsh on the people who were “defaming” Gujarat. The fact of the matter is that the numerous failures of the government are not the figment of anyone’s imagination. Instead of arguing away the harsh reality, he and his colleagues have to make amends for their acts of commission and omission. The faith of the man on the street in the sincerity and impartiality of the administration lies shattered. It has to be restored, not merely through words and peace marches, but through deeds.

Media reports about the number and identity of the illegal immigrants who drowned as their boat capsized near the holiday resort of Naxos off the Greek shore on April 16 contradict the claims of the Ministry of External Affairs. Media reports are based on the statements of relatives of some of the immigrants and carry the names of the supposed victims along with details of their villages, while the MEA version is based on the information provided by the Indian missions in Greece and Turkey according to which none of the victims belonged to India. In view of the sharp gap in the two sets of information, the immediate need to clear the confusion and present a true picture of the incident becomes imperative as rumours can cause unwanted misery and panic among the already troubled families of the immigrants, mostly belonging to the Doaba region of Punjab. Newspapers and TV channels can help by avoiding speculative and unconfirmed reports about the incident. The public concern over the unchecked illegal immigration from Punjab is understandable as only a few days ago there were reports in newspapers that some 110 youths had been detained by the Ukrainian police at Kiev for illegally entering that country. One of the youths, a Punjabi, later died of starvation in jail. This points to the inhuman conditions in which illegal entrants are held captive as also the unconcern and indifference of the Government of India in taking any rescue action.

It is but natural that the April 16 mishap near the Greek shore should remind one of the horrific Malta boat tragedy in which some 220 illegal immigrants had lost their lives. A lot of hue and cry was raised then about the large-scale unauthorised immigration of Punjabi youth and some gangs of illegal travel operators were also smashed. As memories of the disaster got blurred, the temporarily
tightened system of vigilance also got slackened and the unscrupulous travel agents, blinded by greed, returned to their lucrative but deadly business of human trafficking. Once again, the Greek mishappening may lead to the tightening of the loose screws of the system, but only temporarily. We continue to move from one tragedy to another as the basic living conditions remain unchanged or worsen, and their causes remain unaddressed. Improper and inadequate education and lack of employment and growth opportunities in Punjab combined with the glitter of the foreign land drive desperate, unemployed youth, mostly unskilled or semi-skilled, to use whatever means are within their reach to realise their dream of quick prosperity. Dreams break when faced with the reality and the consequences are the ones witnessed at Malta then and Naxos now. Can’t some government agency monitor foreign jobs, tap and train local talent, and provide reliable and cheap channels of immigration instead of leaving youth at the mercy of wolfs in the trade?

A nation that does not invest in its children is doomed to have an uncertain future. There is global consensus on this point. Yet, few countries have really given the growth of what can be called the "child sector" the attention it deserves. In developed societies the neglect of this sector results in the kind of tragedy that visited a school in Erfurt in Germany last week. A 19-year-old student, who had recently been expelled, took out his sense of frustration by shooting 16 persons from point blank range. Most of the dead were teachers who showed little sympathy for the student who was caught between an unhappy home and strict school discipline. Of course, the silver lining in the incident was the national response. The national flag was flown at half-mast across the country and the ruling party cancelled an official function as a mark of respect for the dead. There are important lessons in the tragedy for both the developed and developing societies. It may have inadvertently given additional meaning to the three-day World Summit for Children opening at the UN from May 8. About 70 heads of state or government, parliamentarians, NGOs and 300 children from across the world are expected to review the goal that the international community had set for itself in 1990. The summit in 1990 went beyond the guidelines spelled out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most widely accepted human rights instrument for the world's nearly 1.2 billion children.

The problem that developing countries face are different from the ones that forced a 19-year-old in Germany to shoot his teachers and then kill himself. But what can be said without fear of contradiction is that no society has made appropriate investments in its child population. For instance, in India malnutrition, starvation, lack of basic health facilities and education remain the primary reasons for what can be called widespread social unrest across the country. The vast majority of children who do not have access to wholesome food, potable water, healthcare facilities and education end up as domestic slaves, menial workers or criminals. The UNICEF figures are scary and disturbing. Out of a total child population of 395 million, 47 per cent are victims of moderate to severe malnutrition, 51 per cent are not fully immunised and 74 per cent suffer from anaemia. The dark shadow of HIV/AIDS infection catching up with the population subjected to child sex and abuse has given a horrifying dimension to the issue. Yes, the General Assembly special session will address a host of issues that concern the welfare of the children across the globe. However, such an exercise will serve little purpose if India does not put its children at the core of its political and development agenda.

If the Bharatiya Janata Party gives the impression of being on the defensive even as it seeks to cloak its stance in bravado, it has reasons for concern. The political space it occupies is diminishing, as recent elections prove. Besides, its indefensible approach to the Gujarat carnage can be justified only in terms of safeguarding its narrow political interests at the expense of the country.

Political expediency is a failing not exclusive to the BJP, only its degree is. As bloodletting has continued in Gujarat, the BJP-led coalition at the Centre has wilfully neglected its primary duty of introducing central rule. Neither Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee nor any of his senior associates has had an unkind word to say about the state’s Chief Minister, Mr Narendra Modi. It would seem that a BJP-ruled state is becoming such a rarity that Gujarat’s Chief Minister is immune to the laws of reward and punishment from his party leadership.

After some two months of murder and mayhem, Mr Modi seems to have lost control of the very forces he encouraged and, as an important functionary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, he has protection no one in the BJP and the larger Sangh Parivar can trifle with. Thus even as stray incidents continue, peace marches become substitutes for decisive central action.

Indeed, much of the comment on the Gujarat carnage, starting with the Godhra outrage leading to a virtual pogrom of Muslims, from the official establishment, the Prime Minister down, concerns its impact abroad, rather than a condemnation of the evil itself. Of the initial three statements Mr Vajpayee made, the first concerned the external dimension, the second the mildest form of disapproval — an injustice (zeadti) had been committed — and the third again about the shame Gujarat would bring India. True, during his belated Gujarat visit, the Prime Minister did express his sympathy and sorrow to the victims, but its impact was soon to be overwhelmed by his subsequent remarks. His Goa speech, for instance, seemed intent on bringing up Godhra’s pre-eminent role and, instead of giving solace to Muslims, at the receiving end of most of the violence, chose to dilate on the jehadi stream among those who adhere to the Islamic faith.

Since Mr Vajpayee is a sensitive soul and an administrator of considerable experience, the answer to his strange conduct must be sought elsewhere. There are two possibilities. Either he is so committed a supporter of the RSS and its philosophy that its agenda and functionaries are above the law. Or the Prime Minister is in thrall to the Parivar and dare not cross swords with it under pain of dismissal. Whatever the reason, the Prime Minister’s stance on Gujarat has not only created an international backlash — something he feared most — but has led to a series of fire-fighting exercises to ensure his government’s survival. To guard against the Telugu Desam Party’s defection, the BJP quickly agreed to the Bahujan Samaj Party’s terms for leading a coalition in Uttar Pradesh, after declaring from the housetops that the party would respect the electorate’s verdict by sitting on the opposition benches. BSP votes are a valuable commodity in the Lok Sabha.

In less stressful times, Mr Vajpayee could have donned the mantle of the statesman by ignoring Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s teasing remarks in her address to the Confederation of Indian Industry that the organisation’s decision to ask her to inaugurate the session was perhaps an indication of the direction the political winds were blowing. The Prime Minister could not resist giving her a public answer at the same forum by asserting that his government would last its full term.

If the government is able to complete its term, it would be attributable to the fact that the Congress is not quite ready to assume office or seek an election and the anxieties of the National Democratic Alliance constituents to safeguard their regional bailiwicks from Congress poaching. Nor is it a secret that those in the NDA and others outside it are loath to see the Congress party return to power after all the decades it has ruled India.

The BJP is thus continuing to lead the federal coalition by default. Its window of opportunity is limited to the outside limit for holding the general election in 2004. And most of the NDA constituents will soon be planning their own strategies on when and on what issues to peel off from the BJP to ensure that they are not singed by the depredations of the Sangh Parivar.

What remains unclear is how Mr Modi thought that his administration’s penchant for turning a blind eye to what was, by all accounts, a planned pogrom would serve the Sangh Parivar’s purposes. If he was counting on the polarisation of Hindu-Muslim votes, such a phenomenon has come at great cost, even to the Hindus of the state. And the RSS is doing itself, the state and the Vajpayee government no service by protecting Mr Modi because as long as he remains chief minister, he will be the lightning rod for all criticism.

So hemmed in the BJP-led government in New Delhi feels that it has thought fit to pounce upon foreign expressions of concern. Leaving aside gratuitous comments from Pakistan, foreign reaction, from the European Union and elsewhere, has been couched in gentle and civilised terms, fully recognising the role media, civic action groups and activists are playing in seeking to bring truth and peace to the fore. It does not behove the democratic government of a country of one billion to take umbrage over foreign criticism of a terrible series of tragedies in Gujarat.

One hopes the BJP will see its way to removing Mr Modi, who symbolises for Muslims in his state the worst aspects of RSS philosophy.

And the sooner genuine peace is restored and the rehabilitation of the victims is undertaken, the sooner will the federal government move on to other important business. To begin with, let us restore Parliament to its true function.

Genocide, pogrom, Nazism and apartheid. Words that spell discrimination and cold-blooded massacre of innocents have sprung out of history books and today haunt India as never before. Sweeping accusations and sensational headlines have become the order of the day, hurting India no end. The carnage in Gujarat was a kind of apartheid — and has parallels with Germany of the 1930’s... The VHP and Bajrang Dal are the main instruments for realising the ghettoisation of the Muslims. The state bureaucracy is now busy covering up its acts of commission. “Genocide cases to be filed against Gujarat Chief Minister Modi in London.

Are these are a part of the plot of an author’s future magna opus? Or two rival political parties slinging mud at each other. Tragically, “No.” These are the undiplomatic outpourings from New Delhi diplomatic enclave. The culprits? Britain, the European Union (comprising 14 nations), Canada, Finland and Holland. Their diplomats have sent highly exaggerated, mischievous and astonishingly partisan reports about the Gujarat carnage to their respective governments. Worse, they have deliberately and diabolically leaked them to friendly (even obliging) media. These are the countries which have undeservedly anointed themselves as the moral guardians of the world and are now busy poking their nose in India’s internal affairs. This has made New Delhi livid and even invited from Prime Minister Vajpayee a sharp reaction: “Stop sermonising, lay off,” he said and added: “India is being preached about secularism. We do not need to learn from others what secularism and pluralism are all about.”

Some of the ambassadors summoned by the External Affairs Ministry have no doubt apologised for the media leaks. But they have not denied the contents of their reports. Even British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has apologised to his counterpart, Mr Jaswant Singh. A senior official of the European presidency in Madrid has clarified to India’s Ambassador, Mr Dilip Lahiri, that none of the 14 EU missions had used expressions such as apartheid, Nazi Germany or pogroms in their official dispatches on the Gujarat situation. But these apologies have not cut much ice with South Block, notwithstanding an improvement in New Delhi’s relationship with the USA and with the developed countries across the globe.

As the leakage on the Gujarat imbroglio shows, this does not add up to meaningful friendship. An acknowledged parameter of friendship is to respect each other’s sensitivities. No friend ever blackens the face or tarnishes the image of the other. In this case, our so-called friends have not only walked all over New Delhi’s sensitivities. They have also gone out of their way to paint us black internationally and, worse, continue to do so. All in the garb of moralistic overtones, mingled with moral outrage.

True, there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies in international relations, only permanent “interests”. Be that as it may, the Western bloc’s interference in India’s internal matters violates the fundamental ground rules of diplomacy. On two scores. No diplomat worth his salt ever leaks his “Top Secret” internal report to his government, to journalists of the host country. Nor do honourable diplomats express their serious concern about the internal matters of another country publicly.

It is another matter that the media allowed itself to become a pawn of these diplomats. Distressingly, some journalists have given precedence to the freedom of the Press over national interest. Just to run riot with a headline or show themselves to be different. Forgetting that one of the tenets of this freedom is the ability to exercise responsibility and self-censor what is in the interest of the country and what is not. In the USA journalists are first responsible Americans, and then journalists. This was evident post-September 11 when National Security Adviser Condeleeza Rice requested the media not to carry the Osama bin Laden tape on various networks or print any of the “terrorist” messages as it was against national interest. They honoured it. Sadly, in India the obverse has been true for a section of our media. They have been journalists first and Indians later. Unfortunately, several among the Western diplomatic corps in New Delhi have conducted themselves like partisan journalists, who consider the freedom of expression as their birthright, however, exercised irresponsibly.

Even as this has left many in South Block red with anger, there are some also with egg on their face. Take the latter first. Raisina Hill’s new foreign policy of improving ties with the USA and other Western countries, and gaining their sympathetic ear on Kashmir and Pakistan’s cross-border terrorism was being touted until the other day as a feather in Prime Minister Vajpayee’s cap. Skeptics were brushed aside as clinging on to old suspicions when winds of new friendship were blowing in India’s favour. Today this feather has disappeared. “Instead of helping, our friends have hurt us bitterly,” remarked a senior Foreign Ministry official. “How dare they interfere in our domestic affairs. How dare they take liberties with us?”

Unfortunately for New Delhi, the world of
Realpolitik has nothing to do with being natural allies. It is brazenly opportunistic, pragmatic and unethical with the devil taking the hindmost. Clearly, the West’s bottom line on India has remained unchanged. The world’s largest democracy continues to be a speck which can be tossed around like a football to suit their diabolical and mischievous ends.

Plainly put, the West is nobody to sermonise India about secularism or pluralistic society. The diplomatic community in New Delhi should realise that India is truly secular because it has a Hindu majority. India’s is the only civilisation that talks of the world as one family, as reflected in the Vedic ethos of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.

Would Britain dare comment on discrimination in the USA where blacks are actually treated badly. Would it ever wonder that till date Washington does not boast of a Black President. Even the appointment of two black — Secretary of State Colin Powell and Condeleeza Rice — by President Bush made history of sorts. Notwithstanding the American civil war when the black Americans sought freedom from slavery, the suspicions about them continue to linger over the centuries. Would some European Union countries take the liberty of criticising the British policy on Ireland and the thousands of Irish killed in this internal strife? Doesn’t this merit to be called genocide?

What next? Given the inevitability of India’s search for its own place in the global strategic community, New Delhi needs to appreciate the realities and complexities of a unipolar world. It is downright stupid to believe that the West will mould its foreign policy to advance the cause of the developing humanity at the expense of its own interests. No country ever allows moral norms to override realpolitik. Foreign policy is not a one-shot affair. It requires long-drawn-out cohesive planning. India should not allow itself to be fooled and kicked around with million-dollar studded boots. The West needs to remember one basic fact of life. When it points one finger at India, four point back at it. Bluntly put: stop meddling.

Until a year back, it was rather fashionable to dismiss the Congress as a dinosaur party. We were all delighted to watch the party’s Lok Sabha tally nosediving to 112. The more wishful among us had even predicted disintegration of the Congress, turning it, at best, into a regional party. The Congress did face a leadership crisis. But more than that its real problem then has been an identity crisis.

It was when the Vajpayee doctrine of converting the BJP into the liberal and pluralist mainstream party had caught the imagination of large sections. For some time it looked that the Vajpayee BJP was set to grab the Congress space in all respects. As a result, a confused Congress had even been forced to endorse much of the measures initiated by the NDA government. Anti-incumbency ire against the NDA parties in states may have contributed to the subsequent bounce-back by the Congress. But fact remains that all such failures had stemmed from Atal Behari Vajpayee’s inability to live up to the popular expectations and thus to provide a cohesive leadership to the coalition.

Now the formal collapse of Mr Vajpayee’s coalition-based liberalist doctrine and its replacement by the Modi model of hardline Hindutva provide both an opportunity and challenge to the rather ill-equipped Congress. The Modi model means greater isolation of the BJP, now or in the next few months. This is inescapable. Even if the lure of power and more and more of it may keep the allies happy for some time more, they will find it hard to withstand the eventual backlash. When the BJP’s return to the Hindutva programmes even at the cost of the coalition, catches on, the BJP allies will be left with the option of either keeping out or sink with the former.

Either way it is going to benefit the Opposition, especially the Congress. They will only have to take advantage of the public ire against the way the Modi model is enforced in Gujarat. It is not the ‘English Press’ alone. The western reactions, indictments by the human rights institutions and the NGOs have all led to the public mood against the NDA government’s helpless silence. Since Vajpayee cannot any more re-establish his pre-Goa line, the BJP government’s crisis of legitimacy as expected in the repeated elections reverses, will worsen in the coming months.

The problem with the Congress has been that it remains confused over the strategy to deal with this new opportunity. There is sharp division within its leadership about seeking the support of other opposition groups. The party faces a short-term as well as long-term strategic dilemma. After considerable persuasions, differences over the short-term policy of floor coordination seem to have been resolved. Began with informal meetings between the Congress and other parties, it has now been more or less institutionalised.

Despite this, leaders like Pranab Mukherjee have been feeling shy of being seen in the company of ‘irresponsible’ groups like the Left, Mulayam and RJD at the day-to-day meetings. Mukherjee had found it ‘undignified’ to block the proceedings of the two Houses over the Gujarat genocide. The issue has been resolved on the intervention at the highest levels of the Congress. Implicit in such expressions of Congress ‘identity’ has been a reluctance by the lost aristocracy to sit with the commoners.

Another short-term issue on which the Congress as well as most opposition parties have reservations, pertains to toppling the present government. Deve Gowda has been a sponsor of a proposal to rope in some of the NDA allies to form an alternative government. No one even took it seriously. The Congress disfavours the idea on tactical grounds. Even if the toppling game succeeded, the Congress feels, such a move will ultimately benefit the BJP.

In the first place, the new hotchpotch arrangement may be short-lived. On the one hand, such a government will not be able to make any mark. On the other, it will give enough time for the people to forget the BJP government’s misdeeds. Therefore, it is better to allow the Vajpayee government complete its full term. If it falls under its own weight, the Congress hopes to come out with flying colours in the subsequent mid-term elections.

Given the power craze among the NDA allies, this virtually amounts to allowing the Vajpayee government to continue in power. For, experience has been that a government could be toppled only after convincing the recalcitrant partners about the feasibility of an alternative arrangement. This has been the ugly reality of the contemporary politics. It has been so with every coalition at the Centre. The Janata government under Morarji Desai fell only after the Charan Singh group could demonstrate its ability to form a government with Sanjay Gandhi’s backing. In the case of V.P. Singh, Chandra Shekhar was the rallying point.

As for a long-term strategy, the Congress is in a deeper dilemma. From 1998, the party has been steadily improving its performance. The party now rules 14 states. Sonia Gandhi’s respectability graph is on the rise. Even bulk of the middle classes, who had viewed her as a inheritor of authoritarianism, dynastic rule and stiffling democratic rights seem to be accepting her credentials if the recent elections are any indication. To an extent, the vigorous Congressisation of the BJP in all its true colours seems to have given more respectability to the Congress.

However, being in a third or fourth position in such large states as UP, Bihar, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu which together account for 208 seats, there is little scope for the Congress gaining its own majority in the Lok Sabha in the foreseeable future. The “deficit” is so large to be filled in by the normal parliamentary manipulations. In Tamil Nadu, a generation has grown up without witnessing a Congress government. In UP it is over a decade, closely followed by Bihar. Thus there is no escape from multi-party rule at the Centre even if the Congress performs well elsewhere.

Outside support, a temporary alternative to a coalition, has never been a success. In all such cases (except in the case of the Left), it has always been proved disastrous. V.P. Singh was toppled by the BJP when he had refused to go along with it on the Ayodhya issue. Sitaram Kesari’s prime ministerial dreams made him one day to suddenly withdraw support to Deve Gowda. The Congress later toppled the Gujral government on the basis of a patently false news story on the Rajiv killing.

The Vajpayee government has proved that power sharing with minor parties is the best insurance against revolt by the allies. In the past three years, the BJP has perfected coalitional malpractices — by exchanging support for making sons and pals ministers at the Centre and trading chief ministership for votes in the Lok Sabha and the presidential poll. Once such a pattern is set, the other parties will also get sucked into similar competitive malpractices.

An influential section within the Congress continues to resist the very idea of coalitions. They argue that if the Vajpayee regime is allowed to decay itself, in another two years Indian voters will turn coalition-fatigued. This super party hangover on false premises is going to be a big drag on the process of the reorientation of the Congress txo suit the changing political dynamics.

The Islamic culture of segregation of sexes was based on early marriages that prevented sexual frustration but economic pressure and evolving social attitudes are rapidly changing that tradition.

Many in the cities, particularly the educated middle class, are in their 30s when they get married — and until then they are expected to live celibate lives. It does not work, particularly when society is opening up.

More and more women are coming out of their sheltered place. There are girls’ schools and colleges in every city and towns and even in big villages. Thousands of women go out to work every day. So the chances of unmarried men and women meeting each other are stronger now than ever before.

It is obviously having its impact, slowly but surely shifting social and moral attitudes. Until the 1960s, it was common to see veiled women in cities. In many countries, such as Pakistan, it is now a rare sight. In a school or college of 5,000 girls, today not even 50 would be wearing veils.

This mixing of sexes is not always “benign” as most Muslims would like to believe. Many men claim to have had more than one affair before their marriage. Most of these affairs, they claim, are platonic but many also acknowledge having sex before marriage and not many have recourse to prostitution. So who are their partners?

If you suggest they have been having sex with girls from their neighbourhoods, their schools and their work places, they get offended. “Our girls? Never. They never do such things,” is the usual answer. This has created a strange attitude toward women. Most men want women before they are married but they are reluctant to acknowledge it.

It is considered wrong to express your desires to a woman. But not many hesitate to touch, pinch or even grope a woman when walking in a busy street or the bazaar. Rubbing hands against a woman’s body is so common in most cities there probably is no woman who has never been rubbed or touched. Some men even try to put their hands inside her veil.

It is bad for a woman to show her body in public, so she has to be properly covered when she goes out. A young woman is not even supposed to buy her own under-garments until she is old. Before that, the shopping is done by her husband if she is married or by her mother or grandmother if she is single.

But it is not bad for a shopkeeper to display the same goods. Some stores love to display bras. I have never seen so many bras, in all colours and sizes, displayed from every angle.

Television and newspaper advertisements are full of sexual innuendoes. Sometimes women can be seen promoting even exclusively male objects such as a razor blade or an after-shave. When it comes to appreciating female beauty, men are partial to blondes. Fashion models have mastered the art of exposing everything — while at the same time keeping a token cover-up. The qamis or the sari never slips but they can show all the curves and contours.

All this hide-and-seek has made women extremely vulnerable. They are no more the objects behind the veil that they used to be. They are no more protected from the male eyes by the four-walls and the thick curtains that separated their world from that of the men. Yet at the same time they are not allowed to come out and live with confidence.

This half-hidden and half-exposed woman gets neither respect nor economic strength the opportunity to come out and work for a living provides her.
UPI

Preliminary research suggests that some headaches may be linked to infection with a common bug and that daily doses of friendly bacteria could ward them off.

A study presented at an infectious diseases meeting in Milan found that about 18 per cent of chronic migraine sufferers were infected with the stomach bug helicobacter pylori and that antibiotics appeared to clear the headaches. Adding the probiotic Lactobacillus seemed to work even better, leaving most people migraine free for a year and lessening the intensity and frequency of recurring headaches in the others, the lead researcher said.

Experts were cautiously receptive to the idea but said the findings were too tentative to draw any firm conclusions. Helicobacter pylori, the bug that causes gut ulcers, has recently been linked to a growing list of diseases, including heart disease, autoimmune diseases and skin conditions.
AP

GM potato on way

After cotton farmers, it is the turn of tobacco and potato growers to reap benefits from biotechnology.

Two months ago the Centre had allowed farmers to grow a genetically modified variety of cotton that is bollworm-attack resistant.

Now plant biologists at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai, using a technique called “coat protein mediated protection”, have created tobacco plants that are resistant to its deadliest enemy — a virus called “potato virus Y” or PVY.

The tiny helical shaped virus got this name because it also infects potato “causing 30 to 40 per cent crop loss and even some times total crop failure,” according to V. A. Bapat one of the BARC biotechnologists involved in the project.

The work by Bapat and his colleagues S. B. Ghosh, L. H. S. Nagi, T. R. Ganapathi and S. M. Paul Khurana reported in “Current Science” may eventually enable Indian farmers cultivate PVY resistant potato and tobacco. Their work is still at the laboratory stage.
PTI

Of baldness and short-haired lions

Savage, man-eating lions and bald men may have something in common, scientists have found. The infamous Tsavo lions in eastern Kenya killed more than 130 people during a reign of terror in the 19th century but one unique characteristic of the lions is that the males have no manes.

This turns out to be a genetic trait and high levels of the male hormone testosterone may account both for the lack of manes and the lions’ unusual aggression, The Times reported in London.

Testosterone is known to cause male-pattern baldness in human beings, and heightens aggression and territoriality.

The lions’ fearsome reputation grew after more than 130 men building a railway bridge across the Tsavo river were killed and eaten by two of them in 1898.

Scientists will examine samples from the lions to measure levels of testosterone.
DPA

When the Master initiates us, puts us on the path, he is always with us, even if he leaves his body... Because the Master is not the body; the Master is that Word which is in the body... So when the Master attaches us to that Word, he takes his abode within us. Therefore for us he is always living....

So the real Master is a spirit, the Word, and the real disciple is the soul. But unless the soul is in the flesh, unless that spirit or Word is in the flesh, the soul, cannot be brought in contact with the Spirit. Only through initiation by a living Master can the Spirit within pull the soul of the disciple back to the Father.

—Maharaj Charan Singh, Thus Saith the Master

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Blessed are they that hear the Word of God.

—The Bible

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The treasure of the Word is inexhaustible. It gives to mortals the highest, purest and most intense happiness and bliss.

The Word or Holy Spirit alone can subdue the wordly passions and bring about the supremacy of the spirit over the flesh. It is the supreme purifying agent of this and all worlds.

Joseph Leeming, Yoga and the Bible

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He that heareth my word (the Word).... is passed from death unto life.

—The Bible, John

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Those alone are my friends in whose association my heart is purified, in whose
association remembrance of God is inspired, sins are annulled and heart is illuminated.

—Sri Guru Granth Sahib

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If men fathom what it means to have virtuous and wise friends, they will find the means to procure such friendships.

The Tirukural

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Profit is not for those who have no capital; nor is stability for those who lack the support of true friends.

The Tirukural

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There is nothing too difficult for a man who, before he acts deliberates with chosen friends and reflects privately.